Brad Hall: HALL THINGS CONSIDERED: Apply the fundamentals to make a difference in us and those around us
Sep. 3—I know I wrote about football last week, but with my Kentucky Wildcats kicking off their season this weekend, I have to share about my favorite sport one more time.
If you're a Kentucky Wildcat football fan around my age or older, you've lived through many, many difficult seasons.
Throughout my childhood and into my early adult years, it was considered a miracle if we happened to win just six of the 12 games in a season. Yes, that's right, we would be excited to win just half of our games.
Never mind having aspirations of a conference championship or a national championship, we just wanted to win as many games as we lost. And on the rare occasion we got lucky and won seven games, then we would be dancing in the streets with excitement.
Fast forward to today, however, and those six or seven wins are now considered the bare minimum. Anything below that is now considered a disappointment.
Coach Mark Stoops has built up Kentucky Football into a much more competitive program that has a chance of winning on any given Saturday.
Stoops and the Wildcats have reached milestones that I've never witnessed in my lifetime.
At the end of the 2018 season, they made it to the prestigious Citrus Bowl and defeated traditional powerhouse Penn State to claim their 10th win of the year.
Ever since then, we've been right in the thick of things with hopes each season of repeating that performance and beyond.
But as I mentioned, it certainly was not always like that, and it definitely was not like that when Coach Stoops took the job a decade ago.
He had to start from the ground up just to make the Wildcats look like a team that even belonged in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Many believed the program wasn't much better than a smaller, lower level school at that time. Thus, Stoops had to start from scratch to change the philosophy of the program, to change the attitude of the program, and to change the direction of the program.
And while some believed his tenure had a rocky start, it wasn't long before the Wildcats were rolling, and the team was reaching heights I had never seen before.
As Christians, we also have to start from the ground up and focus on the basics to really make a difference.
In our walk, there are at least three fundamentals that are important for us to practice — prayer, reading the Bible, and serving.
Through prayer, we can ask God to do amazing things in us and all of those around us.
By reading the Bible, we can listen to Jesus, we can learn from Jesus, and we can understand what He wants us to do each day.
And by being servants, we can help others along, and also help them connect with Jesus and with the church.
1 Peter 4:10-11 says, "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
Looking for opportunities to apply these fundamentals can make a difference for us and also make a difference in the lives of others.
These decisions can be the difference between winning and losing. We will always win in Christ but we have to keep fighting so everyone around us can receive salvation in Him.
